Tag Archive for habits

Part 3 Summer Shape Up: Change Your Thoughts About Food to Change Your Body

change aristotleYes!  to constantly working to have better thought patterns!  Yes to not accepting that we’re stuck with where we are, because we’re not amoebas – we’re humans, and our brain is literally capable of changing and growing until we die.  Or not.  It’s up to us.  Taking control of our thoughts by focusing and being intentional is exercise for the brain.

Deliberate, studied, conscious thinking keeps our brain young and vital!  This is how we grow new neurons and thought patterns, this is how we determine whether positive chemicals or negative chemicals flow through our brain.

So what are our thoughts about food?  My aim for these last few Posts is to convince you that our thoughts are more important than a particular food plan when it comes to our weight and our health.

Counting calories, tracking food, weighing, measuring, diet meals, diet this could be the daydesserts, diet pills, diet plans… their long term success rate is an abysmal 1-5%.  This stat shows that the desire to lose weight isn’t a strong enough force to change our habits permanently, and temporary changes are useless.

Unfortunately, the HABIT and PATTERN of thinking of our body as the end result of how much we diet and exercise is fairly fixed in most of our brains.

It’s so untrue.  Let’s change that!

Our body’s not a Math Equation, it’s a Chemistry Set.  Start THINKING about our body that way, start looking at food as chemicals that send signals and have consequences as to how we function and feel and perform, and we can change our body, forever.  Losing weight, getting fit, becoming healthy, that happens when we care about every bite that goes into our mouth because we understand that food’s consequences.

My last Post was on stressing about our food, and how counter-productive stress is to our weight and health.  So I’m not suggesting hours of research, or logging everything we eat on to FitDay.

I’m talking about sitting with the thought – the fact – that our food becomes us. Not just our weight, but our mood, our skin, our hair, our energy, and every cell in our body.

Our thought patterns and habits dictate what we eat.  When we believe that certain foods give us energy or heal our body or give us pretty skin, it makes us more likely to seek it out and eat it.

When we believe that certain foods cause cancer, heart disease, migraines, fatigue, diabetes, and allergies, it’s easier to avoid them.

Put “consequence facts” in your mind that allow you to make good choices:    howlongdoyouwantotcontin

– White flour raises blood sugar, insulin and triglycerides; it’s also been sprayed with chlorine gas. The EPA sites this gas as a dangerous irritant that can be lethal.  It also has gluten, which damages the gut and the brain.

– Sugar is cancer cells favorite food.  The same with High Fructose Corn syrup.  They’re both very, very easy for cancer cells to metabolize.

Garlic reduces plaque build up in the arteries.

– Sugar is pathogenic bacteria, virus, and fungi’s favorite food. So sugar feeds the bugs that make us sick.

– Avocados have fats which are great for our skin and vitamins which are good for our eyes.

– Sugar and processed grains cause high blood sugar which causes “glycation”, which damages our skin by causing age spots and wrinkles.  Alcohol – even wine! – causes glycation.

– Leafy greens are loaded with nutrients that make our skin and arteries healthy.  Beets have ingredients that help our liver do all it’s many jobs.  Cruciferous vegetables prevent cancer.

– Sugar suppresses the ability of white blood cells to kill pathogens. Sugar and our immune system are highly connected.

– Saturated fat and cholesterol make up our glands, our hormones, and 60% of our brain.

– Proteins make up our muscles, hair, skin, nails, ligaments, and organs. Proteins become the connections between the fatty parts of our brain that allow messages to jump from one neuron to neuron to another.  They also build our chemical messengers, neurotransmitters:  dopamine, serotonin, GABA, etc.

When we eat sugar and flour and hydrogenated fats and toxic chemicals, we damage our heart, our brain, our liver, our kidneys, our skin, etc etc etc.  Damage.  It’s slow, it’s subtle, it might be mistaken for “aging”, or a bad mood, or fatigue, but it’s damage, and it’s inevitable.

Damage is also revealed in an inability to lose weight.  Our bodies should be masters at burning fat for fuel,  and using nutrients to rebuild our cells.  When illness, chronic fatigue, and resistant weight loss happens, there’s our proof that Damage is Done.

habittilobserve then choiceThank God it’s possible to reverse the damage by changing our habits. Here’s an Action Plan:

– Set aside time every week for planning, as in write down your schedule.  Your work, your kids schedule, your errands, your workouts, everything, including Food.  Schedule your grocery store, keep a running list all week, make time to chop and prep, power cook a few meals and put them in the freezer.

Does planning sound stressful? Studies show that organizing and scheduling REDUCE stress.  Living by the Seat of the Pants increases stress.

– Don’t buy your trigger foods. This is a no-brainer!  Keep foods that tempt you far, far away.  Convenience of trigger foods makes resisting really tough, so don’t let them be convenient. Worried your family will object to no chips or cookies in the house?  Junk food is Poison food.  No one in our families needs that crap.  No one.  All those above listed facts on sugar and grains and their links to cancer and immune function, they apply to children too.

There’s a great study on Flight Attendants who smoke, and the desire they feel for their cigarettes while they’re on their flights. The study revealed that it didn’t matter how long the duration of the flight was, whether it was short or long, their desire for their cigarette rose as they got closer and closer to the end of the flight.  Smoking was about to go from “Not Allowed”, to Convenient, and the craving appeared.

– If shopping is your albatross, take advantage of shopping on line, or having your groceries delivered, or buying the precut vegetables or prepared meats at most grocery stores now.  At least have a list ready!

bo bennett quote– Commit to 5 minutes a day of reading information that trains the brain to think of Food as Medicine or Food as Poison.  Please.  To beat the drum again: wishing for weight loss isn’t enough to inspire permanent habit changes.  Believing our food can make usfeelgood healthy and vibrant or sick and old, can.

One of my favorite sites, based solely on studies but written for succinct, easy reads:  Green Med Info.

Need help with your habits and thoughts? Get in touch with me! I have skill set of tricks to change behavior. Imagine yourself a year from now; you could be a whole new you, you could be the same, or you could be worse. Make the choice, take the action.

 

 

Part 1 of Summer Shape Up: Train Your Brain To Work For You.

20150530_094024I’ve been absent for 2 weeks from my blog and it’s killed me!  We’ve had 2 big graduations, parties, and extra travel; but the real reason has been that my computer died.

( Pic of our youngest daughter, Shelby, after her HS graduation, with me, and Amanda.)

Well, actually, my computer was killed by a coffee spill:(  But I finally have a new one and it’s working and all is well!

All is not well for several women who’ve emailed me in the IMG951389past 2 weeks, wanting a diet plan that’ll whip them into shape for Bathing Suit Season.  

(Pic of me and brother-in-law, Bryan, at the Juvenile Diabetes Walk in DC)

I’ve got “plans”; as that’s my job.  But here’s part of my goal: To teach that our thoughts are more important to health and weight loss than a food plan.  Honest.  Really.  It’s true.

Does this sound like you:  “I’m so fat, I’m barely going to eat.  I’m going to start every day off with either a fast, or a juice.  I’m going to workout at least 5 days a week, with sprints!  Lunch and dinner will be miniature!  Boiled chicken and steamed broccoli!  The weight will pour off, and I’ll look just like all the women on the magazine covers by the end of the month.  Woo-hoo for diets!”

Reality check:  statistically, about 100% of EVERYONE who goes on a diet gains the weight back; more than 50% gain more.

Have you heard the phrase, “Stop the insanity!” ?  STOP THE INSANITY!  Would the above plan take off weight?  ABSOLUTELY!  Would it stay off? No.

We’ve got to work on our mind; the mind’s the priority.  If we don’t train our mind to work for us, we’ll never stick to a healthy food plan, ever.  We won’t even make a healthy food plan;  we’ll make a dumb food plan that guarantees failure.

Real health and fitness, being a great weight, is about the actions we take every single day, cumulatively.  Little bursts of starvation or action have no positive results.

To stick to a healthy plan, we have to BELIEVE that food and exercise and thoughts matter, that they create us, because they do.  They really do.

20150530_094802(0)Bad foods (processed flours and sugars, chemicals, hydrogenated fats) make a bad body and a bad mind.  Nothing works right, and I’m not just talking fuzzy thinking or a big butt, which stink.  I’m talking Cancer, Heart Disease, Auto Immune Issues, Neurological Problems, Diabetes, Pain, Headaches, etc. You get the point.

( Meg, Shels, Macy, Manda after graduation )

I’m on a mission!  Food is Medicine or Food is Poison, and I want everyone to believe that so much that it affects our behavior.  This is important.  A belief that we need to lose weight is NEVER enough to effect permanent behavior change.  Never.

But a belief that Bad Food causes Cancer and Disease, in us and our children, now THAT can cause behavior change.

You know what else Bad Foods cause?  Bad decisions.  Our thoughts are actually structural.  Our thoughts and memories are literally made out of proteins.  They’re not little vaporous words floating through our mind, like in a cartoon.

Quality in, quality out.

These protein structures, aka memories, affect our decisions and attitudes.  Again, quality in, quality out.

Want productive thoughts that lead to healthy actions?  We need to be Intentional and Discipled about our health.  To be intentional and disciplined requires knowledge and application.  This is where most of us struggle, right?  Every single thing we give attention to, that we practice and focus on, grows.  If we practice and focus on training our thoughts to lead to healthy actions, we’ll lose weight and get healthy.

Honest.  It’s that simple.

But it’s not easy.  Most things valuable and good aren’t easy.  Should “easy” be a criteria for what we do?   Is that what we teach our kids?

The next few Posts I do are going to be on Training Our Brains for Healthy Behaviors – Every Day.  Not because I’m an expert at it, but because I’m a student of it.   Habits, behaviors, practiced and learned attitudes; I LOVE THAT STUFF!!  I can’t get enough of it!

When we train our mind to work for us and not against us, you know what we lose (in addition to weight!)?  STRESS.  If we believe that what we put in our mouth is going to make us tired, depressed, bitchy, bloated, sick, and fat, then there’s no decision-making-stress when that temptation is put in front of us.  A trained mind allows us to easily choose foods that are good for us.

Join me over the next few weeks as I really zero in on developing habits that lead to a lean and healthy body.  Anyone and everyone can do this.  Let’s commit to becoming the person we’ve always wanted to be.

“Take Control Of Your Habits, Take Control Of Your Life.”

“Successful People Are Simply Those With Successful Habits.”  Bryan Tracy

Part 2, with concrete action steps and mind-bending facts,  coming soon!

Does a Fast Food Meal Here and There Hurt? Habits Are Everything!

Yea!  It appears my blog is fixed!  Thank you so much Sarah Albright of Web Designs by Sarah Albright:) She figured out a pretty big problem for me and I really, really appreciate it!

I’ve had some great questions this week from busy people about eating on the run.  (really, who’s not busy??)  I relate to this.  Work, kids, driving, that’s Real Life, right?   This is an area of stress and anxiety that Big Food has (successfully) spent a lot of time and money on.  Some of the messages:  ” If it looks real, it’s good for you.”  and   “A fast food meal or two during this busy time can be incredibly time saving and helpful. No harm done and your kids will LOVE you for this! “.  It’s an incredibly effective strategy because the message LET’S YOU OFF THE HOOK FOR COOKING.  This has made us sick and fat, and created a generation of kids who take more medications than anyone could have ever imagined.

So how do we manage to eat Real Whole Food when we’ve got work/kids/clubs/appointments/traffic/pets/etc?  We Plan Plan Plan Plan, and then Plan; stick to the plan, and make the smartest choices possible when we HAVE to eat on the run.  Here’s some solutions, but first, please take a look at the ingredient lists for 2 of the most popular fast food items IN THE WORLD.   Look at those ingredients and ask yourself,  “how could this NOT cause harm??”

mcdonaldsf9new2

There’s 7 oils, all of which are either hydrogenated or Omega 6 (cancer/disease/inflammation), artificial color, preservatives, and ANTI-FOAMING AGENT ( what the heck?);  here’s the ingredients in the SALT:  silicoaluminate( also called ALUMINUM SODIUM), dextrose ( SUGAR), and potassium iodide .  Umm.  That’s not really salt.

KFC boneless

 

 

 

Extra Crispy™ Boneless Chicken – White Meat
Skinless White Chicken Pieces, Potassium and Sodium Phosphates, Salt, Seasoning (Potassium Chloride, Rice Flour), Monosodium
Glutamate. Breaded With: Wheat Flour, Salt, Spices, Monosodium Glutamate, Leavening (Sodium Bicarbonate), Garlic Powder,
Natural Flavorings, Citric Acid, Maltodextrin, Sugar, Corn Syrup Solids, With Not More Than 2% Calcium Silicate Added as an Anti
Caking Agent.
Contains Wheat.

Gross.  Two sources of MSG, sugar, phosphates (good bye bone and kidneys), and “anti-caking agents”.  Don’t let yourself be fooled into thinking that a little bit of this can’t cause damage, because it can.

Want a Plan?  Sit down on Sunday with your schedule in front of you, note everything that both you and your kids have to do.  Plan accordingly.  When can you power cook batches of food?  When can you shop/chop/prep/baggy and freeze?  When do you need to pack for yourself, and your kids?  What needs to go on the grocery list so that happens? Are there evenings with multiple practices in a row that necessitate you stopping somewhere?  At least make it one of the less offensive Fast Foods, like Chipolte or Panera.  These meals aren’t even close to making Real Whole Food at home;  there’s always going to be a degree of Chemicals, Flour and Sugar that are unavoidable when eating out.  So just think of these as Emergency Options.  ( Kind of like my “Emergency Bras“, which is when I forget to pack a bra for after my gym shower, and need to immediately consult or train someone.  When this happens, I head to Walmart for a $10.00 Emergency Bra and put it on in the car.) ( I just realized I’m much more likely to forget to pack a bra or underwear than to ever forget to pack a lunch and water bottles!)

About the Emergency Options:  emergency’s don’t happen every day.  Things that happen every day are HABITS.  There really aren’t that many emergency’s in most of our lives, percentage-wise.  Really, there’s very few surprises day to day, and I’m a working mom of 4, one of whom’s an Epileptic who surprised us a few times a month:  “Surprise, I’m about to have a seizure.  The day needs to change right now.”    95% of our days STILL aren’t a surprise with even that scenario.  *** ( to my friends whose children have issues much, much, worse than mine, your days do contain more surprises; focus on your health and energy as much as you can.)

Worried because living life by the seat of your pants is your norm?  You were brought up that way or have nurtured those habits for years?  Just because you’re an adult and haven’t established these Planning Habits yet, doesn’t mean you can’t.  You can.  Everyone can Create and Establish Good Habits.  Initially, this’ll cause some stress, because we’re forcing ourselves to take actions that are better for us in the LONG TERM than the SHORT TERM.  The other day I was at a lecture called “Solutions for The Overactive Brain”, the neurologist giving the talk said that our BRAIN DOESN’T WANT TO DO WHAT’S BEST FOR US, IT WANTS TO DO WHAT’S EASIEST FOR US.  Wow.  I can’t stop thinking about that.

The stress we feel when we commit to living our life according to what’s best LONG TERM depends on HOW MUCH PRACTICE WE’VE HAD DOING THAT.  Parents!!  It’s really important that we teach our kids boundaries and self control. Apparently, those skills are muscles in the brain, and they’re stronger with use.  However, just like any muscle, they can be built any time with focus and effort.

One last tip for eating on the run:  it doesn’t have to be special or delicious, it just needs to supply nutrients.  Turkey/cheese roll ups, bags of nuts, fruit and nut butters, hard boiled eggs, chunks of cheese and fruit, celery and pb and raisins, leftovers in a tupperware, heat up a good sausage or one of the new hotdogs that aren’t full of disgusting ingredients.  Tell your kids that you’re packing because eating out is too expensive.  When I said, ” We don’t have the money to eat out”  that was rarely met with resistance.  If I  said “pack your dinner for after soccer because after that so and so has gymnastics and we’re not stopping at McDonalds because it’s gross”, now that was met with resistance (whining, begging, arguing).   (ps – Macy, you’re not really just “so and so ” to me, you’re much more than that honey.)

A long term result?  I have 4 kids who hate fast food, and are great about throwing little baggies in their back packs for long days.  They also pack their own water bottles.  It’s a habit they were trained in, and it’s never too late to develop habits.

What have I been eating lately?  Here’s a smoothie, a lunch salad, and a dinner:

Smoothie: Raw Keifer/blueberries/carob/stevia/avocado/spinach/raw egg/cinnamon/ginger/rose hips/hemp seeds, topped with coconut

breakfast smoothie and waters

 

 

 

 

 

Packed Salad for Car Lunch:  greens/broccoli sprouts/whole shredded beet and carrot/salmon/gouda/walnut oil and balsamic

salmon salad

 

 

 

 

 

Dinner:  brussels/onion/leeks/garlic/cabbage/bacon/lots of butter, herbs, and salt – this freezes and re-heats GREAT, and tastes good cold!

brussels bacon

 

 

 

 

 

I get asked for recipes often.  I NEVER use a recipe.  Half the time I use my hand to measure the spices and herbs.  Real Whole Food tastes delicious so you can’t go wrong with it.  If cooking is stressful, start with recipe books or sites, build up your skills and confidence, and go from there.  Start simple!  Don’t make recipes with 17 ingredients because your stress ( and cortisol) will go through the roof ( hello belly fat!).  Set up a podcast, or TV, or talk on the phone with an ear piece (not wireless – those EMFs are horrible for us!), because multi-tasking does work sometimes:)  You can do this! You can become healthier, thinner, and more energetic, and you can instill good habits in your kids.  We have Power, we just need to use it!

 

Want To Lose Weight? You’ve Got To Develop Lean Habits.

usEaster This post is in response to some sad emails from those of you who’s head gets turned every time you pass the display counter at Starbucks, or a bag of Stacy’s pita chips, or cave when a bread basket wafts up your nose.  “Good days” and “bad days” are going to be a thing of your past, because you can Change Your Brain Patterns – I promise!  Repeat that to yourself out loud, because your brain believes what your mouth says.  All Dieting has to stop, and healthy beliefs and facts need to be absorbed, if you want a different body.

The data consistently shows that Dieting Causes Weight Gain.  It’s a sure-thing that if you try to restrict calories, there will be rebound binges.

Want a plan?  Here you go:

Focus on changing your habits and thought patterns.  Habits are the ONLY way to a lean, healthy body Habits are what we do day after day after day, with very little effort. We develop healthy habits through planning, practice, and belief. 

( If you believe that you can cancel out crappy food with starvation or heavy exercise, you’ll never keep your weight off.  Ever.  If you believe your body needs nutrient dense food to run well, you’ll be lean and healthy. )

Eat three meals a day.  Don’t snack, at all.  Make sure all your meals are at least moderate in size, bigger if you’re active. (Tiny diet meals cause snacking; let’s change this so you’re not high on blood sugar and insulin all day.)  (Insulin is a “fat storage” hormone.)

Eat plenty of good fats, good proteins, TONS of vegetables, some fruit, some nuts and seeds, and some dairy if you’re good with that.

Eat on a schedule ( morning, noon, and night).  Skipping a meal because you’re not hungry, maybe trying to “eat intuitively”?….Ugh.  Disaster waiting to happen!  Hunger influences our choices; wait til you’re hungry, and there’s a good chance your choices will be BAD.

Don’t rely on Willpower to get you through the day; willpower is in very finite supply.  Using willpower depletes the glucose stores in your brain and leaves you feeling weak and depleted; what psychologists call, “decision fatigue“.  Disaster waiting to happen – again!  Work on developing new Habits and Thought reducefleshPatterns. 

Quit living by the seat of your pants.  Plan, Plan, Plan, and then sit down and Plan.  If you Fail to Plan, then just Plan to Fail, because changing your thought patterns and your habits isn’t going to happen naturally.

Carry Out Your Plans.  Shop, pack, freeze, cook, keep a running list though the week of meal ideas, lunch ideas, and grocery needs.

You think that you can’t do this because you’re too busy?  Oh please!  Get rid of that  excuse!  Tomorrow I’m posting a Success Story by my friend, Terry Kaye.  She’s a mom of 3 boys, two of which have health issues, she works a few different jobs, she works out, and she cooks every day.

Who do you know who isn’t busy?? And don’t we want to teach our kids how to successfully handle normal, real life?  Plan, Plan, Plan, and Plan.

Delete any thoughts of “making up for this later”,  or starting over tomorrow/Sunday/Monday/the 1st etc.  That’s ” Diet ” thinking, seriously.  Diet thinking means you’re negotiating with yourself that if you eat crappy food now, you’ll starve yourself later; which would work if your body was a Calories In Calories Out system.  It’s not.  It’s a Chemistry Set.  The chemistry you set in motion with lots of crappy carbs and toxic chemicals will NOT be balanced out with Starvation or Excessive Exercise.  Ever.

Delete any thoughts that carby foods made with flour and sugar (muffins, donuts, cookies, etc)  at Wegman’s, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s are Healthy because you bought them at Wegman’s, Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s.  Products made with grain flour and sugar are still products made with grain flour and sugar.  They’ll spike your blood glucose, your insulin, and your cortisol, and put on belly fat. Junk food is junk food.

If you really want to change the way you habitually think about food, get in touch with me.  The more you understand how your body works, the easier it is to make smart choices.  Habits are the ONLY way to a lean, healthy body.  Habits are what we do day after day after day, with very little thought or effort, and ZERO decision fatigue.  Does it take a few months to change your habits?  Yes.  Looking back though, what’s a few months.  Ask yourself, where do you want to be Next Year on This Date.  Exactly where you are right now, doing the same old habits and patterns; or lean, healthy, and using newly instilled habits?  Ask yourself this: how long have you been using the same old Diet methods to try and change your body? How many years?  What’s the definition of Insanity?   Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.

Everyone is capable of change, but doing the same old thing will always bring about the same old results.  Commit to Real Whole Food, and commit to changing your thoughts and habits, you can do this!

Man Post by Mark coming this weekend.  🙂

Weight Gain, Cancer, Depression,…Thanks, Aspartame.

debbie (27)I hear this all the time:  I just can’t stop drinking my diet ___, I know it’s not good for me, but it’s the only bad thing I do. (That’s code for:  I’m going to keep doing this no matter what.)  Sugar, flours, and trans fats, it’s easy to believe they’re bad for us.  But what about Diet Foods that are supposed to make us skinny, they must be good, right?  All the people you see advertising them look GREAT –  we want to look great – diet products seem like the logical answer.  But they’re not.  They’re deadly and addictive, and studies show that partakers AREN’T skinnier/leaner/thinner.  Let’s look at Aspartame, aka NutraSweet and Equal.

The evidence against Aspartame is vast, wide, and old.  It’s highly, highly linked to cancer, especially leukemia; it depletes the brain of Serotonin, which causes depression; it’s a “neurotoxin”, which means it stimulates brain cells – sometimes to death; it’s highly linked to migraines, seizures, and headaches and every neurological condition out there;  it has substances which break down to formaldehyde; and it stimulates areas of the brain which no diet cokemake you want more.  Diet Soda, Low fat Yogurts, Diet Bars, Diet Candy, Diet Ice Cream, Diet Cookies, it’s a given for most of these products.  But did you know it’s also in several foods that aren’t Diet products?   Sauces, crackers, CHEWING GUM ( 85% of ALL gum), and medicines?

Did you know that every time you give your child a children’s pain reliever such as Tylenol or Pediacare, you’re giving them a dose of Aspartame?  It’s also in Alka Seltzers, Zantacs, chewable vitamins, laxatives, and hundreds of other medicines.

tylenolThe FDA refuses to fully condemn it, but it’s reputation has taken a (deserving) hit.  Because of this hit, the company that market’s and owns Aspartame (Monsanto), will soon be marketing it under it’s new name:gums  AminoSweet.

Here’s the thing:  everything in moderation doesn’t apply to Poison.  A little tiny bit of poison does damage.  Every time.  Don’t be fooled by what you don’t see, because poison, and damage, accumulate.

Worried because you want to break your habits, but can’t?  That’s because when brain neurons create patterns, it’s very very hard to undo them.  You can help your children avoid poor health and (future) addictions by making sure everything they eat benefits their mind and body. You have a lot of power as a parent, and,.. that’s our job.     If you want to break your addictions/patterns/thoughts/habits, email me.  It takes a plan, conscious effort, and support.  Trust me.

coconut chipsOne more thing, recipes:  Toasted Coconut Chips.  O. M. Gosh.  These are amazing. Courtesy of my friend Gina:

1 bag Bobs Mill Large Coconut Chips

1/4 cup melted Ghee or butter (Ghee is butter that’s had all milk/water removed – it’s Super Butter)

1/4 tsp sea salt

Stir whole bag of chips around in bowl of melted Ghee till well coated. Sprinkle with salt.  Spread on a long pan/sheet, and toast at 325 for 30 minutes.  Every 6/7 minutes, you’ll need to toss/mix them well.  Keep an eye on them – you might need to reduce the heat. It’s normal that they brown a little.  These are HEAVEN !

Next, Plantain Muffins – Delicious and a great alternative to wheat flour, or even coconut or almond flour.  These are from the Paleo Mom, and this is directly from her site.  I used muffin cups because I hate washing the sides of those little pans.Paleo-Yorkshire-Puddings-1024x682

  • 2 large green plantains (1 1/2 – 1 3/4 cups pureed)
  • eggs
  • 1 tsp salt
  • about 1/3 cup ghee/butter/palm shortening
  1. Put about 1/2 Tbsp of fat in the bottom of each cup of a metal muffin pan (silicone pans can’t handle this high heat).  Put muffin pan in oven and turn up heat to 450F.
  2. While you’re waiting for the oven and pan to preheat, peel the plantains.  I find this easiest to cut in half both lengthwise and crosswise (quartering the plantain) and then prying the peel off with my thumbs.  Combine the plantains, eggs, salt, and butter in a blender.  Blend on high for 3-5 minutes, until smooth and airy.  This takes less time in a high powered blender.  In my Blendtec, I pressed the smoothie button to puree the ingredients, then blended on 7 for an additional minute.  You get more air in your batter if your ingredients are room temperature.
  3. Remove the hot pan from the oven and pour batter into the muffin cups.  Put immediately into the oven and bake for 20 minutes

And that’s my words for today:)    I’ve got a Female Health Seminar all day Saturday, which I’m really looking forward too.  If you’ve got questions about that, email them to me, and I’ll keep my ear open for answers.  Eat Real Whole Foods!!